#PrideMonth

California has become the first state to legally declare June as LGBTQ+ Pride Month.

The Advocatereports: on Monday, CA Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill, AB 2969, into law. It goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2019, and requires the governor to make the proclamation of June as Pride Month every year. The bill was written by California State Assembly member Evan Low. He said in a statement:

“California has the largest LGBT population of any state in the union, and the state is home to over 40 LGBT Pride celebrations each year. I want to thank Governor Brown for adding Pride to the list of celebrations codified in statute.”

Ever since then, Pride gradually become a more widely recognized celebrated occasion—with the glaring, infuriating exception of Trump’s White House failing to recognize it, after Barack Obama’s administrationdid every year he was in office.

Equality California executive director Rick Zbur said this in a statement:

“In the face of a president who refuses to recognize Pride Month, we're deeply grateful to Governor Brown, Assembly Member Low, and the entire LGBT Caucus for recognizing the LGBTQ community’s role in California and California’s role in the LGBTQ civil rights movement.”

AB 2969 was supported by the Los Angeles LGBT Center and Equality California, and coauthored by all members of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus. Note: California is the first country in the nation with an official caucus of LGBTQ+ legislators. Evan Low, a Democrat from Silicon Valley, is chairman.

In a sign of solidarity and support, the community of San Pedro, Los Angeles flew a rainbow flag for Ryan Gierach, a gay Air Force veteran who has recently been harassed in his neighborhood.

Gierach moved into his San Pedro apartment two years ago, and says the level of harassment he’s received has escalated ever since.

Gierach says his neighbors have posted signs harassing him, calling him “pedophile” among other names. They’ve even thrown dirty diapers at him. The abuse has been caught on camera.

“[They] looked up at me and began calling me gay epithets and a child molester,” Gierach says.

LA City Councilman Joe Buscaino led the flag-raising ceremony at Welcome Park.

“We are a town, we are a city that’s inclusive, that regardless of who you love, how you love, how you pray, what you look like, or how you live, that we are welcoming to everyone here in San Pedro,” Buscaino said.

Gierach hopes that the abuse will stop after Saturday’s ceremony and the public show of support from his San Pedro community.

“This is not about me," Gierach told CBS LA. "This happens every day in every place in this nation.”

A rainbow flag was also raised at the LAPD’s Harbor division on Saturday.

Gierach is formerly the editor of WeHo News, which he launched in 2005. He sold the url a few years back amid financial and addiction struggles he was very public with. He recently told KTLA he was discharged from the Air Force in 1979 for his sexuality.

A political activist, a DJ, an artist - for more than 25 years, Juanita MORE! has been a fixture in the drag world.

MORE! hosts fundraisers for LGBTQ organizations, and in 2017, she organized a march that brought around 10,000 people together.

For Levi’s 2018 Pride campaign, the denim giant shares her story and how she found her identity through drag.

"When I was growing up all I did was artistic things. I wanted to paint. I wanted to cook. At that time, it just didn't feel like the direction to go, and I had no one to inspire me to do that until I started doing drag and I realized I'd been living my life as an artist, but I didn't believe in it.

"I can't imagine how many drag queens are in every city. I think if I was to have my own TV show, I would get in a little truck, and drive to every rural city and find the one gay bar and the one drag queen, and interview her - because she's important to me."

Levi’s advocacy for the LGBTQ community is nothing new. Dating back to the ‘80s, the casual fashion company helped open the first AIDS clinic in the world (at San Francisco General), and continues today with their support of organizations that stand up for equality, such as the Harvey Milk and Stonewall Community Foundations.

"Our 2018 Pride campaign is about being proud, bold, and most of all, being yourself," says Levi's in a statement.

Check out Juanita MORE! in the video below, and make sure you check out her Levi's fashion designs ;)

Over at the Boston Pride Parade, two police officers crashed their motorcycles along the parade route and injured an older woman.

The two officers were responding to a call for help by another cop. Ironically, it was a medical call that caused the two motorcyclists to rush to the cop and collide at Beacon and Joy streets.

When the impact happened around 3:24 pm, the officers ended up falling to the ground and hitting a female pedestrian in the process.

“I heard a sound and all of a sudden I saw two to three cops on motorcycles who had run into each other,” said 35-year-old Gus Jenkins, of Cambridge, to the Boston Herald. “It stopped the parade. Plenty of people came together to make sure the situation was OK,” he said

“It was chaotic,” said Mary Madamcy, 21, of Cape Cod. “There was confusion and people were still chanting.”

“I rushed down to help, to see if they needed water. ... I was just hoping everyone was OK,” said 19-year-old Morgan Gilbert-Koff who's also from Cape Cod.

Afterwards, the two officers and the female onlooker were sent to the Massachusetts General Hospital. There, it was determined that there were no serious injuries.

Today, a quarter of a million people from around the world gathered in Tel Aviv today to march in the largest ever pride parade in the Middle East where Bravo’s Andy Cohen served as this year’s International Ambassador.

At a press conference for Pride Week, the television personality was effusive about the energy of the people attending the Pride celebrations.

"I live in New York City and this is my first but definitely not my last time in Tel Aviv," Cohen told the media. "I am a proud gay Jewish man and the only gay host in late night TV. I have been struck by how incredible it is, not only to be here, but as a proud gay Jewish man surrounded by my people."

"It's also an amazing thing seeing gay pride flags flying everywhere next to the flag of Israel," he added.

"Celebrating Pride in Tel Aviv is a beautiful celebration of gay rights and visibility in a region where many of the neighbors cannot live as their true selves or be who they were born to be, which makes it all the more special for this massive coming together in support of equality to be taking place in Tel Aviv."

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the City’s first pride events, and the parade paid tribute to the pioneering activists who played a key-role in promoting LGBT rights and visibility in Israel.

The theme of this year’s event is “the community makes history” as the LGBTQ community celebrates three historic milestones: 10 years to the founding of the Gay Center in Tel Aviv, 20 years to Tel Aviv’s first Pride and 70 Years of Israeli Independence.

In keeping with the growing number of participants in the parade every year, the Tel Aviv municipality is expecting record numbers this weekend - more than then 200,000 that attended last year.

Pose, the new drama series from uber-producer Ryan Murphy gets the Entertainment Weekly cover treatment as the magazine celebrates Pride Month.

The FX network drama, set in New York during the go-go 1980s, chronicles the intersection of the underground LGBTQ ballroom culture and the emerging Trump-era elite.

EW calls the series “an unabashedly emotional celebration of those on the outskirts of mainstream society, particularly LGBTQ people of color.”

Ryan Murphy and the cast chat on going back in time, convening the biggest cast of transgender actors ever, and why representation matters.

“I think the power of television is incredible,” says producer Murphy. “I feel like if you put characters in front of viewers, even if they’re not like you, but you learn about them and you love them, it will change your worldview and lead to acceptance.”

Among the cast and crew are more than 140 transgender artists, including author Janet Mock and Transparent’s Our Lady J, who both serve as producer-writers.

“Anyone who would say that there isn’t enough trans talent out there really has not tried and not looked hard enough,” says co-creator Steven Canals. “There’s an abundance out there that is untapped.”

Indya Moore, the 23-year-old actress who plays “Angel” shares, “This show is my heart and my soul. To the healing that it brings up, to the stories that it tells and the solutions that it brings to the table."

"This show is an evolution that I’ve lived through and that I still am going through," she adds. "And it’s going to impact the world in ways that we’ve never seen before.”

Series regular Billy Porter (Tony Award winner for Broadway’s Kinky Boots), who plays ball culture emcee “Pray Tell” puts it out there: “As a black, out gay man, I’ve never felt part of the conversation — this is going to make us part of the conversation.”

In Murphy’s mind, the success of the show won't be measured in money or ratings. “It made history the moment it was greenlit,” he says.

Pose airs Sunday nights at 9PM ET/PT on FX.

Watch the cast chat behind the scenes during the photo shoot for the cover.

Members of a downtown Indianapolis Crossfit Infiltrate gym are bailing after general manager Brandon Lowe canceled a pride-themed workout via email.

The rapid fallout doesn’t end there, though—on Friday evening, Crossfit fired company executive Russell Berger for supporting Lowe’s discriminatory move in a series of homophobic tweets just hours before.

“Thank you #CrossFitInfiltrate for standing by your convictions and refusing to celebrate sin by hosting an @indypride workout,” Berger shared on his personal Twitter account. "The intolerance of the LBGTQ ideology toward any alternative views is mind-blowing.” The tweets have since been deleted.

And here is Crossfit’s public statement about their Chief Knowledge Officer's termination mere hours later.

Shortly after receiving an email that the Indianapolis gym’s pride workout had been axed, member Ryan Nix confronted Lowe on Facebook, in a message that has since been made private.

“We emailed the owner since it seemed that there was an issue with people who may be LGBT,” Nix wrote. “You can see from his response that there is…. Please tell your friends not to join this place.”

Lowe told Nix that the gym was for “total health,” and that pride prevents people from seeing themselves “as God truly defines them to be.”

“Our underlying goal for the staff and members at CrossFit Infiltrate and our other gyms CrossFit White river and University Ave CrossFit is total health and well-being for the individual and community. Total health involves the body, the emotions, relationships, and the spirit. At the foundational detractor from health, as we believe God sets the parameters for, is pride. We believe that true health forever can only be found within humility, not pride. Humility is seeing oneself as they truly are, and as God truly defines them to be. As a business we will choose to deploy our resources towards those efforts and causes that line up with our own values and beliefs.

Of course we will continue treat anyone and everyone with the same respect and provide the same service at CrossFit Infiltrate to anyone that wishes to take part.”

Several members and employees of the Indianapolis gym have already cut ties.

Member Becca Kimball told local station RTV6, “It’s been a fabulous community… I quit my membership within an hour of receiving the email. I didn’t wanna be associated with a discriminatory organization.”

On the upside, Lowe’s decision has brought members of the Indianapolis community together. Some of the gym’s employees have rescheduled the pride-themed workout for Thursday June 7 at an outdoor location. The rescheduled workout will be open to the public.

It looks like CrossFit still has some serious damage control to tend to.

Just in time for Pride month, Apple has released a special screen face that includes rainbow colored strings that are animated and interactive to the touch. Apple released the new feature with the iOS 11.4 and watchOS 4.3.1 and it was announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) according to 9to5Mac.

The strings move each time you move your wrist to look at the time or if you tap your Apple watch’s screen.

In addition, Apple also released a Pride watch band that goes along with the new Apple watch face, reports Mashable. The new band is white with rainbow stripes along the nylon band. This is not the first time Apple has created Pride watch bands. In 2016, Apple released limited edition bands for their employees who participated in the San Francisco Pride Parade.

The band retails for $49 on the Apple website and stores across the US, UK, Australia, Japan, Germany, France, China, Canada, Brazil and more! Profits from the new band will go toward LGBTQ-supporting organizations like Gender Spectrum, GLSEN, ILGA, PFLAG, The National Center for Transgender Equality and The Trevor Project.